December 13/05 5:12 am - Burnaby Six Day (Day One)

Posted by Editoress on 12/13/05

Burnaby Six DayCourtesy Organizer

The B group, consisting of 16 riders, got off to a fast start with a Miss and Out. The race was won by Recycled Cycles rider Daniel Harm out of Washington State. Young guns Naomi Cooper and Cody Campbell held their own finishing both in the top five. Their next race was the dreaded Snowball. Paul Craig and Anselmo both took a bunch of laps early on in the race, but as the later laps hold more points, their lead did not hold for very long. New rider Nathan MacDonald showed some great speed and was the next to take a flyer, picking up points lap after lap in the middle part of the race, but then Daniel and Cody came out to play. The two of them gained enough points and also lapped the field to finish first and second. A crash half way through the race took two riders out for the evening, both Sara Laliberte and Albert Souza were done for the night, hopefully we will see them back racing he rest of the schedule. As the B Madison Group was cancelled a Scratch Race was added to the evening's festivities. The race was once again won by Daniel, with Anselmo, Cody, Brenda Pennell, a transplanted Brit, and Nathan rounding out the top five.

In the A group six teams signed up for the first SixDay to be run in British Columbia in over 2 decades. The field consisted of four local teams, one Washington State team and a pair of riders from Calgary. The first race off was the Madison Pursuit. The race was set up as a seeding event and Calgarians Ryan McKenzie and Philippe Abbott set the fastest time of the night. Next up was the Scratch Race. The race was the full championship 15kms long, and the riders really felt the distance in this one. The attacks were furious from the start with most every rider taking a turn off the front. When the dust settled, event organizer Scott Laliberte beat out Ryan to take the win. The top five consisted of Washingtonian Adrian Hegyvary, newcomer John Perkins and local hard man Murray Solem. Next up was the Miss and Out, and with riders being pulled every second lap, this race never let up. The front changed hands many times again with most riders wanting to stay out of the melee. With the number of riders dwindling, Scott played devil for a handful of laps until deciding with four riders left to take the front. The final three of Scott, Christian Meier and Ryan used their extra lap to play a bit of cat and mouse. Ryan was the first to attack but Scott responded and just nipped Ryan at the line. The evening's last race was the A Madison. The 30 minute race had three sprints and plenty of attacking. Many time National Espoir Champion Christian Meier had to do the whole race on his own as his Madison and Symmetrics Cycling teammate Marsh Cooper had an exam that ran late. Showing smarts, Christian rode an amazing race to nip the Campione Cycles teammates of Scott Laliberte and Murray Solem by 1 point to take the hard fought win.